Our first get-together for 2013

Our first meeting of 2013 was a busy one with four quilts quite close to being complete. Lian is completing the hand quilting on the Green Twister (Ruth having done quite a bit already), we have hemmed the Chocolate Roses which now just has a little more quilting to be done. We have sandwiched the King's Highway and Jenny's Poppies is nearly a complete quilt top.

Jeanette and Graham came to join us from Dongara, WA. Having only had a day of lessons when I visited them last year, Jeanette was pleased to be able to move on to the next stage in her patchwork and quilting. Lots to learn and lots to remember.

Robyn won the Chocolate Roses Quilt raffle and has decided to keep the quilt. It is most amazing that this is the one she won as she had such a huge part in decisions to use batting instead of polar fleece. She has decided to keep the quilt.

The baton system worked a treat with only a few changes to be made for next time. Thank you everyone for rising to the challenge so well.

On Sunday evening Ellen, Rod, Alex and Luke arrived early for dinner and the boys were most disappointed that they could not do some sewing this time. Alex is already asking for a sewing machine of his own. However, they did enjoy looking at Ma's special pop-up books.

Rod was able to get on with some soldering once he found Surrey's soldering iron. Unfortunately the stool he was sitting on broke during the process so he could be rather sore from his sudden drop.

 

Thank you to all who came and made the weekend so enjoyable. Thank you to Graham who cooked a beautiful baked dinner for Sunday night. I think Jeanette and I will be exhaused for a few days yet but now we have her next lesson ready - binding the King's Highway quilt which she and Linda finished quilting using the walking foot yesterday.

Patches and Quilts

I have now completed the update of the various Instructions tabs on this blog.

For my classes following the Patches and Quilts 2013 program there is now a tab called Patches and Quilts with links to instruction pages and websites to help you each week.

For the Rainbow Connection Quilters group I have put our blocks in the RCQ Instructions tab.

Take a look around and see what you think. All feedback is welcome.

October Quilting Weekend

Thank you to all those who came and worked this weekend and put up with my erratic behaviour. Even though we had extreme difficulties with our "King's Highway" quilt which we have now nicknamed the "Suffragette Quilt" because of the colour scheme it has now been completed as a quilt top. Pernilla was visiting from Sweden and had lots of input into the layout and organisation of this process. Thank you Pernilla.

You would not believe that attaching rectangles and squares could be such a problem but it was a nightmare. 

Lesson: trim and square everything at every stage of the process.

We did achieve some positive results and our Green Twister is now ready for in-the-ditch quilting as is our Chocolate Roses quilt. The Green Twister has its binding already hemmed but the Chocolate Roses (which is batted and backed) still needs its binding cut and attached. If anyone would like to help with and of these finishing processes please just contact me. We could do it after about mid November.

We drew the next fabric and block. It is a beautiful shell fabric but there was no name on the parcel. Who donated some lovely shells? I may not have time to write the instructions or post this out until mid November so please let me know if you would like to give this next block a miss and I won't send the fabric to you. We have adjusted the block pattern that came with the shells to suit be size of the print and will use some offcuts from the King's Highway top that go beautifully with it. I'll send that fabric as well.

For our May meeting next year the plan is to spend the Saturday at Kogarah Library to have a Jelly Roll Race. More about that later when we are clearer with requirements.

Our October weekend is the last one for 2012 so Merry Christmas to all those I will not see beforehand. I will send out dates for next year and a possible Christmas afternoon tea later in the year.

Kogarah Library Quilters

The Kogarah Library Quilters group is nearing the end of its year of blocks and quilts and we are now madly trying to finish up the quilts we have in progress ready for our exhibition at the library in early November. If you have a chance to go and look please do so.

 

 

 

 

Two quilts to sandwich

Next time we get together we have two quilt tops ready to sandwich, quilt and bind. I got carried away and put little details in the binding corners of our green twister quilt that the Sydney members started at the beginning of the year. The quilt camp where I learned the twister block was on again last weekend in Maine USA and Marion went again. We had a skype call and she showed me the quilt tops she finished while she was there.

Linda and I will be going on a quilt camp together soon and I hope to finish the embellishments on my England quilt top.

The other quilt ready to sandwich is Wilma's Chocolate Roses. I have now found a backing fabric for it that matches the chocolate on the front. However, we still have to find an appropriate binding.

At our next get-together there will be lots of tacking to do. See you all then ready to sit around the table with these two group activities.

Jeanette is prolific

When I sent fabric and the pattern to Jeanette (WA) this time she had her block done and in the mail the next day. Looks great!

She had already done a few practice runs before she got the fabric and they look great too.

She sent me a few more pics of blocks she has been experimenting with. For a new patchworker she is very good.

Amazing! Thanks Jeanette.

I am really glad Jeanette lives so far away because I am sure neither of us would get anything else done if we lived near one another. We'd be quilting all day every day I am sure.

UFO Sunday! What a great idea

UFO Sunday is a post from the Free Motion Quilting blog by Leah McTavish. Read it. It is quite inspiring. I think I'll start a UFO Tuesday because Tuesday is my quilting day. Perhaps tomorrow I will just sort out all my UFOs then select one of them to progress with. Wish me luck. Perhaps borders on this beautiful one will take it off my design wall.

August Patchwork and Quilting

Prior to our quilting weekend in August Liz came over from New Zealand and we were able to complete the finishing touches on our Penny's Sampler Quilt. 

 

So our raffle was held and Lian won the quilt but has decided to donate it to Bezzina House with most of our other quilts.

 We welcomed our newest member Sue who was actually the first to finish the new block - Marion's Churn Dash.

By afternoon tea on Saturday we had 11 members all enjoying our time together upstairs quilting, and downstairs around the dining table. The roll call included Elaine, Sue, Ruth, Jenny, Lian, Wilma, Robyn, Karen, Mary, Linda and myself. What a crowd!

Our next block is Marion's fabric and a churn dash design. The background colour and centre block should be white (not cream) and the straight lines are your choice of fabric but remember the colours must be present in the mystery fabric.

And look at Wilma's Brown Roses so far!! There are a few more borders to add and the binding of course but it truly looks magnificent. The sides on the cross caused a few issues and a point of discussion for Robyn and I but we eventually got the thin brown border on and the quilt square! We are going to batt and back this one rather than using polar fleece.

Yes, and this is a photo just to prove I was there too.

 

Using stripes

Jenny alerted me to this great site See How We Sew

It has a great entry called Make the Most of those Sensational Stripes

Now here is some help for us all

Cath (Melbourne) has sent this link to dozens of patchwork and quilting video tutorials.

Missouri Quilt Co presents all sorts of patches, quilts and terminology.

I have also added this link to the Quilting Videos list on the right. Happy watching.